What is the ads.txt file? How to Create ads.txt?
What is an ads.txt file? Want to create and manage an ads.txt file in WordPress?
If your website gets caught up in fake ads, it can damage your reputation and cost you money. Adding a simple ads.txt file to your website can protect your site, partners, and publishers from ad fraud and possibly increase your ad revenue.
In this article from Ded9’s blog, we will show you how to create and manage the ads.txt file in WordPress easily, So stay with us until the end.
Why create and manage Ads.txt files in WordPress?
At the beginning of the article, what is the ads.txt file? We will discuss the reason for creating and managing this file in WordPress websites.
Selling advertising space is a great way to make money blogging online with WordPress. However, online ad fraud is also a big problem for brands and website owners.
Let’s look at an example. Imagine a brand that wants to place an ad on your WordPress website. They find a vendor who claims to be related to you and can place ads on your website.
This third party may be one of your approved partners or commit online advertising fraud by selling unauthorized advertising.
If your site is involved in ad fraud, a third party may buy ad space and resell it without your approval. This can lead to spam or malicious ads on your WordPress blog.
Here, an ads.txt file can help keep your site secure.
Ads.txt file stands for “Authorized Digital Seller” or “Authorized Digital Seller.” The IAB Tech Lab developed this file to help prevent online ad fraud. In this file, you can list all the companies that have permission to sell advertising space on your website.
An ads.txt file is publicly available, so advertisers, publishers, and sellers can use it to check if they’re dealing with a verified company.
If you sell ads on your WordPress blog using Google Adsense, DoubleClick, or Ad Exchange, we recommend adding an ads.txt file to your site.
With that said, let’s see how you can create and manage an ads.txt file in WordPress.
How to create and manage the Ads.txt file in WordPress
The easiest way to create ads. the text file is to use the Ads.txt Manager. This free plugin adds a simple code editor to type on all your enabled platforms and networks.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Ads.txt Manager plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After activation, go to Settings » Ads.txt page.
This will open a simple code editor where you can add each platform or vendor on its line. For example, here we add Google AdSense as an approved advertising platform:
google.com, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
The first field is the company’s domain authorized to sell or resell your ad inventory. In the example above, it is google.com.
After that, you’ll add a unique publisher ID to your account.
The third section declares the type of relationship: DIRECT or RESELLER. Direct means the publisher works directly with the AdTech vendor. Meanwhile, RESELLER means that the publisher has authorized a third party to resell on their behalf, such as an ad network or ad management solution.
The last part is the ID of the advertising platform, which is optional.
Now you can add as many platforms and sellers as you want. Add any organization in your line.
When satisfied with the information you entered, click the “Save Changes” button.
Now, anyone can read your site’s ads.txt file.
Add ads.txt to the end of your domain name to see the file in action, eg.
Fixing the “Earnings at risk Error” error in Adsense
At the end of the article, what is the ads.txt file? We will discuss how to fix the Earnings at Risk Error in Adsense.
If you use Google AdSense, you may see the following error in your AdSense account:
Earnings at risk – One or more of your ads.txt files does not contain your AdSense publisher ID. Fix this now to avoid a severe impact on your income.
It just means that your ads. The text file does not have the correct publisher ID.
Log in to your AdSense page using your Google email address and password to fix this issue. You will find the ID next to the following field: “This email is associated with the AdSense account.”
Now, go to Settings » Ads.txt in your WordPress dashboard and find the line that adds Google AdSense as an authorized provider.
You can now change the text to use the appropriate identifier.
After that, don’t forget to click “Save Changes” to save your settings. If you revisit your Google AdSense account, the error message should disappear.
